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The price of gas concludes this Friday with the most expensive weekly average in the historical series with a cost of 195 euros/MWhabove the 179 euros/MWh of the week of March 7 to 11, when the highest absolute prices were reached in the first days of the war in Ukraine.
Despite the fact that today the price of gas negotiated in the Dutch market, a reference in Europe, has fallen to 194 euros/MWh, 2.23% lessthe cost of the raw material remains very high and has closed several days above 200 euros throughout the week. The price was reached on Wednesday morning at 222.5 euros/MWh.
Natural gas supplies from Russia to Europe via the Nord Stream they are at 20% of the capacity of the gas pipeline after what Gazpromthe Russian state company, has applied several cuts alleging various technical or maintenance circumstances.
Germany, the main recipient of this gas, has criticized the cuts and considers that the reduction in flow responds to a “war strategy” of Russiawhich uses its power in the market to respond to the sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.
An alleged repair of a turbine
In the middle of June, Gazprom lowered the daily volume of pumping for this infrastructure alleging that a turbine had to be repaired, which raised the price of gas above 100 euros per MWh, a level that has not been lost. In July, the Russian gas company suspended gas supplies through the Nord Stream for ten days for “routine maintenance work” and this week it has increased the reduction to 20% to repair another turbine.
The market impact of this strategy has been immediate and natural gas has gone from about 140 euros per MWh at the beginning of the month to more than 200 euros during this week, a level that was only surpassed at the beginning of March, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, when the prices of most raw materials soared due to the sanctions on Moscow.
The current prices are exceptionally high and more if you take into account that it is summer and at this time of year the demand for natural gas is low and puts downward pressure on prices. The last week of July last year, when gas prices had already begun to rise, it cost an average of 38 euros per MWh, in 2020, a year marked by lower demand due to the pandemic, 8 euros per MWh, and in 2019 , 10.9 euros per MWh.
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